Russian Communication Minister Says No To Internet Censorship

from the that's-a-good-thing dept

Unfortunately, we're hearing way too many stories about governments looking for ways to set up national firewalls or filters to "protect" their citizens from certain content. So, it seemed worthwhile to mention a country that has gone in the other direction. Russia's Communications Minister is saying that he is against any kind of government run filters, pointing out that existing laws governing the interaction between publishers and viewers should cover any problems -- but that any kind of national filter or firewall would go too far, and could damage the growth and development of the internet.

The real reason

Russian Self-Censorship

This news stands in contrast with a call from the Moscow Governor for self-censorship and the deputy head of Russia's federal agency for press and mass communication saying that:"As far as content filtering of the Internet is concerned, State's politics intends to offer the public its services to protect them against harmful and unlawful content."The call for self-censorhip has already made a Russian literary site to adjust its policy to exclude certain (fictional) political content.Who needs a firewall when state pressure pushes people to restrict what they publish?